Understanding
a Brain-Based Approach
to Learning
and Teaching
Educators who become aware of recent
research on how the brain learns will gain exciting ideas about conditions and
environments that can optimize learning.
The
greatest challenge of brain research for educators does not lie in
understanding the anatomical intricacies of brain functioning but in
comprehending the vastness, complexity, and potential of the human brain. What we are beginning to discover about the
role of emotions, stress, and threat in learning and about memory systems and
motivation is challenging basic assumptions about traditional education. Fully understood this information requires a
major shift in our definitions of testing and grading and in the organizational
structure of classrooms and schools.
Principles of Brain-Based
Learning
We
offer the following brain principles as a general theoretical foundation for
brain-based learning. These principles
are simple and neurologically sound.
Applied to education, however, they help us to reconceptualize teaching by taking us out of traditional
frames of reference and guiding us in defining and selecting appropriate
programs and methodologies.
Principle One: The brain is a
parallel processor.
It
is always doing many things at one time (Ornstein and Sobel 1987). Thoughts,
emotions, imagination, and predisposition’s operate simultaneously and interact
with other modes of information processing and the expansion of general social
and cultural knowledge.
Good
teaching "orchestrates" the learner's experience so that all these
aspects of brain operation are addressed. Teaching must, therefore, be based on
theories and methodologies that guide the teacher so as to make orchestration
possible. No one method or technique can by itself adequately encompass the
variations of the human brain. However, teachers do need a frame of reference
that enables them to select from the vast repertoire of methods and approaches
that are available.
Principle Two: Learning engages
the entire physiology
The
brain is a physiological organ functioning according to physiological rules.
Learning is as natural as breathing, but it can be inhibited or facilitated.
Neuron growth, nourishment, and interactions are integral to the perception and
interpretation of experiences (Diamond 1985). Stress and threat affect the
brain differently than do peace, challenge, boredom, happiness, and contentment
(Ornstein and Sobel 1987). In fact some aspects of the actual
"wiring" of the brain are affected by school and life experiences.
Everything
that affects our physiological functioning affects our capacity to learn.
Stress management, nutrition, exercise, and relaxation, as well as other facets
of health management, must be fully incorporated into the learning process. As
many drugs, both prescribed and recreational, inhibit learning, their use
should be curtailed and their effects understood. Habits and beliefs are also
physiologically entrenched and therefore resistant or slow to change once they
become part of the personality. In addition, the timing of learning is
influenced by the body's and brain's natural development as well as by
individual and natural rhythms and cycles. For example, there can be a five‑year
difference in maturation between any two "average" children.
Expecting achievement on the basis of chronological age is therefore
inappropriate.
Principle Three: The search
for meaning (making sense of our experiences) and the consequential need to act
on our environment is automatic.
The
search for meaning is survival oriented and basic to the human brain. The brain
needs and automatically registers the familiar while simultaneously searching
for and responding to novel stimuli (O'Keefe and Nadel 1978). This dual process
is taking place every waking moment and, some contend, while sleeping. Other
research confirms the notion that people are meaning makers (see chapter 8 of Making Connections). The search for
meaning cannot be stopped, only channeled and focused.
The
learning environment needs to provide stability and familiarity, which is part
of the function of routine classroom behaviors and procedures. At the same
time, provision must be made to satisfy our curiosity and hunger for novelty,
discovery, and challenge. Lessons need to be generally exciting and meaningful
and offer students an abundance of choices. The more positively like real life
such learning is, the better. Programs for gifted children often take these
implications for granted by combining a rich environment with complex and
meaningful challenges. In our view most of the creative methods used for
teaching gifted students should be applied to all students.
Principle Four: The search
for meaning takes place by "patterning."
(Nummela
and Rosengren 1986). Patterning refers to the meaningful organization and
categorization of information. In a way, the brain is both artist and
scientist, attempting to discern and understand patterns as they occur, and
giving expression to unique and creative patterns of its own. The brain is
designed to perceive and generate patterns, and it resists having meaningless
patterns imposed on it. By "meaningless" we mean isolated pieces of
information unrelated to what makes sense to a student. When the brain's
natural capacity to integrate information is acknowledged and invoked in
teaching, then vast amounts of initially unrelated or seemingly random
information and activities can be presented and assimilated.
Learners
are patterning, or perceiving and creating meanings, all the time in one way or
another. We cannot stop them; we can only influence the direction. Daydreaming
is a way of patterning, as are problem solving and critical thinking. Although
we choose much of what students are to learn, the ideal process is to present
the information in a way that allows their brains to extract patterns, rather
than attempt to impose the patterns. "Time on task" does not ensure
appropriate patterning, because the student may actually be engaged in busy
work while the mind is somewhere else. For teaching to be really effective, a
learner must be able to create meaningful and personally relevant patterns.
This type of teaching is supported by those advocating a whole language
approach to reading (Goodman 1986; Altweger, Edelsky, and Flores1987), thematic
teaching (Kovalik 1989), integration of the curriculum (Shalley 1988), and
approaches to learning that are relevant to life outside the classroom.
Principle Five: Emotions are
critical and at the heart of patterning.
We
do not simply learn things. What we learn is influenced and organized by
emotions and mind‑sets based on expectancy, personal biases and
prejudices, degree of self‑esteem, and the need for social interaction.
Emotions and cognition cannot be separated (Ornstein and Sobel 1987; Lakoff
1987; McGuinness and Pribram 1980; and Halgren and others 1983). Emotions are
also crucial to memory because they facilitate the storage and recall of
information (Rosenfield 1988). Moreover, many emotions cannot be simply
switched on and off. They operate on many levels, somewhat like the weather,
and they are ongoing—the emotional impact of any lesson or life experience may
continue to reverberate long after the specific event.
Teachers
need to understand that students' feelings and attitudes will be involved in
and will determine future learning. As it is impossible to isolate the cognitive
from the affective domain, the emotional climate in the school and classroom
must be monitored on a consistent basis, by using effective communication
strategies and allowing for student and teacher reflection and metacognitive
processes. In general, the entire environment needs to be supportive and marked
by mutual respect and acceptance both within and beyond the classroom. Some of
the most significant experiences in a student's life are fleeting "moments
of truth," such as a chance encounter in a corridor with a relatively
unknown teacher or possibly "distant" administrator. These brief
communications are often instinctive. Their emotional color depends on how
"real" and profound the support for each other of teachers,
administrators, and students is.
Principle Six: The brain
processes parts and wholes simultaneously.
There
is evidence of brain laterality, meaning that there are significant differences
between left and right hemispheres of the brain (Springer and Deutsch 1985).
However, in a healthy person the two hemispheres are inextricably interactive,
irrespective of whether a person is dealing with words, mathematics, music, or
art (Hand 1984; Hart 1975; Levy 1972). The "two brain" doctrine is
most valuable as a metaphor that assists educators to acknowledge two separate
but simultaneous tendencies in the brain for organizing information. One is to
reduce such information into parts; the other is to perceive and work with
information as a whole or a series of wholes.
People
have enormous difficulty in learning when either parts or wholes are
overlooked. Good teaching necessarily builds understanding and skills over time
because learning is cumulative and developmental. However, parts and wholes are
conceptually interactive. They derive meaning from and give it to each other.
Thus vocabulary and grammar are best understood and mastered when incorporated
in genuine, whole language experiences. Similarly, equations and scientific
principles need to be dealt with in the context of living science.
Principle Seven: Learning
involves both focused attention and peripheral perception.
The
brain absorbs information of which it is directly aware and to which it is
paying attention. It also directly absorbs information and signals that lie
beyond the field of attention. Such signals may be stimuli that one perceives
"out of the side of the eyes" such as gray and unattractive walls in
a classroom. Peripheral stimuli also include the very "light" or
subtle signals that are within the field of attention but are still not consciously
noticed (such as a hint of a smile or slight changes in body posture). The
brain responds to the entire sensory context in which teaching or communication
occurs (O'Keefe and Nadel 1978).
One
of Lozanov's (1978) fundamental principles is that every stimulus is coded, associated,
and symbolized. Thus, every sound, from a word to a siren, and every visual
signal, from a blank screen to a raised finger, is packed full of complex
meanings. For example, a simple knock on the door engages attention and is
processed for possible meaning by reference both to much of a learner's prior
knowledge and experience and to whatever is happening at the moment. Peripheral
information can therefore be purposely "organized" to facilitate
learning.
The
teacher can and should organize materials that will be outside of the focus of
the learner's attention. In addition to noise, temperature, and so on,
peripherals include visuals such as charts, illustrations, set designs, and
art, including great works of art. Barzakov (1988) recommends that art be
changed frequently to reflect changes in learning focus. Educators have also
begun to recognize the use of music as a way to enhance and influence more
natural acquisition of information.
The
subtle signals that emanate from a teacher also have a significant impact. Our
inner state shows in skin color, muscular tension and posture, rate of
breathing, eye movements, and so on. Teachers need to engage the interest and
enthusiasm of students through their own enthusiasm, coaching, and modeling, so
that the unconscious signals relating to the importance and value of what is
being learned are appropriate. One reason it is important to practice what we
preach and, for example, to be genuinely compassionate rather than to fake
compassion, is that our actual inner state is always signaled and discerned at
some level by others. Lozanov (1978) coined the term "double
planeness" to describe this internal and external congruence in a person.
In the same way, the design and administration of a school send messages to
students that shape what is learned. In effect, every aspect of a student's
life, including community, family, and technology, affects student learning.
Principle Eight: Learning
always involves conscious and unconscious processes.
We
learn much more than we ever consciously understand. As Campbell (1989) has
noted, "What we are discovering . . . is that beneath the surface of
awareness, an enormous amount of unconscious processing is going on"
(203). Most of the signals that are peripherally perceived enter the brain
without the learner's awareness and interact at unconscious levels. Lozanov
(1978) writes, "Having reached the brain, this information emerges in the
consciousness with some delay, or it influences the motives and decisions"
(18). We actually become our experiences and remember what we experience, not
just what we are told. For example, a student can learn to sing on key and
learn to hate singing at the same time. Teaching therefore needs to be designed
in such a way as to help students benefit maximally from unconscious
processing. In part, helping students benefit in this way is done by addressing
the peripheral context (as described above); in part, it is done through
instruction.
A
great deal of the effort put into teaching and studying is wasted because
students do not adequately process their experiences. What we call "active
processing" allows students to review how and what they learn so that they
begin to take charge of learning and the development of personal meanings. In
part it refers to reflection and metacognitive activities. One example might be
students becoming aware of their preferred learning style. Another might be the
creative elaboration of procedures and theories by exploring metaphors and
analogies to help reorganize material in a way that makes it personally
meaningful and valuable.
Principle Nine: We have at
least two different ways of organizing memory: a spatial memory system and a
set of systems for rote learning.
We
have a natural, spatial memory system, which does not need rehearsal and allows
for "instant" memory of experiences (Nader and Wilmer 1980; Nadel,
Wilmer, and Kurz 1984; Bransford and Johnson 1972). Remembering where we ate
and what we had for dinner last night does not require the use of memorization
techniques, because we have at least one memory system actually designed for
registering our experiences in ordinary three‑dimensional space (O'Keefe
and Nadel 1978). The system is always engaged and is inexhaustible. It is
possessed by people of both sexes and all nationalities and ethnic backgrounds.
It is enriched over time as we increase the items, categories, and procedures
that we take for granted. (Thus, there was a time when we did not know what a
tree or a television was.) This memory system is motivated by novelty. In fact
this is one of the systems that drives the search for meaning mentioned in
point three above.
Facts
and skills that are dealt with in isolation are organized differently by the
brain and need much more practice and rehearsal. The counterpart of the
spatial memory system is a set of systems specifically designed for storing
relatively unrelated information. Nonsense syllables are an extreme case. The
more separated information and skills are from prior knowledge and actual
experience, the more dependence there needs to be on rote memory and
repetition. We can compare this memory system to the inventory of an
automobile shop. The more items are available the more the shop can repair,
build, and even design cars. It can also do so with greater ease and speed and
less stress. At the same time, if management becomes too enamored of the
stocking of inventory, and mechanics and designers fail to see how to use the
materials available, then an imbalance has been created. In the same way,
emphasizing the storage and recall of unconnected facts is a very inefficient
use of the brain.
Educators
are adept at the type of teaching that focuses on memorization. Common examples include multiplication
tables, spelling words, and unfamiliar vocabulary at the lower levels, and
abstract concepts and sets of principles in different subjects for older
students and adults. Sometimes
memorization is important and useful. In
general, however, teaching devoted to memorization does not facilitate the
transfer of learning and probably interferes with the subsequent development of
understanding. By ignoring the personal
world of the learner, educators actually inhibit the effective functioning
Principle Ten: We understand
and remember best when facts and skills are embedded in natural, spatial
memory.
Our
native language is learned through multiple interactive experiences involving
vocabulary and grammar. It is shaped both by internal processes and by social
interaction (Vygotsky 1978). The learning of language is an example of how
specific "items" are given meaning when embedded in ordinary
experiences. All education can be enhanced when this type of embedding is adopted.
Such embedding is the single most important element the new brain‑based
theories of learning have in common.
The
embedding process is complex because it depends on all the other principles
discussed above. Spatial memory is generally best invoked through experiential
learning, an approach that is valued more highly in some cultures than in
others. Teachers need to use a large number of real‑life activities,
including classroom demonstrations, projects, field trips, visual imagery of certain
experiences and best performances, stories, metaphor, drama, interaction of
different subjects, and so on. Students can experience vocabulary, for example,
through skits. They can learn grammar in process through stories or writing.
Mathematics, science, and history can be integrated so that much more
information is understood and absorbed than is presently the norm. Success
depends on making use of all the senses and of orchestrating the immersion of a
learner in a multitude of complex and interactive experiences. Lectures and
analyses are not excluded, but they should be part of a larger experience.
Principle Eleven: The brain
downshifts under perceived threats and earns optimally when appropriately
challenged.
The
brain will downshift under threat (Hart 1983), which involves a narrowing of
the perceptual field (Combs and Snygg 1959). The learner becomes less flexible
and reverts to automatic and often more primitive routine behaviors. It is
roughly like a camera lens that has a reduced focus. The hippocampus, a part of
the limbic system, which appears to function partially as a relay center to the
rest of the brain, is the region of the brain most sensitive to stress (Jacobs
and Nadel 1985). Under perceived threat, portions of our brain function suboptimally.
Teachers
and administrators need to create a state of relaxed alertness in students.
This state combines general relaxation with an atmosphere that is low in threat
and high in challenge. The teacher must be in this state, and it must
continuously pervade the lesson. All the methodologies that are used to
orchestrate the learning context influence the state of relaxed alertness.
Principle Twelve: Each brain
is unique.
Although
we all have the same set of systems, including our senses and basic emotions,
they are integrated differently in every brain. In addition, because learning
actually changes the structure of the brain, the more we learn the more
individual we become.
Implications
for education
Teaching
should be multifaceted in order to allow all students to express visual,
tactile, emotional, or auditory preferences. There are other individual
differences that also need to be taken into consideration. Choices should also
be variable enough to attract individual interests. We can vary the choices in
this way, but doing so may require the reshaping of schools so that they
exhibit the complexity found in life. In sum, education needs to facilitate
optimal brain functioning.
Adapted fromUnderstanding a
Brain-Based Approach to Learning and Teaching, Renate Nummela Caine &
Geoffrey Caine,
Educational Leadership, 1990. – Updated
12-2-97